Shake-up of league football on the cards

Following the first meeting of the new Guernsey Football League Management board, who were appointed at the annual meeting on 2 June, a discussion paper entitled Battling Back has been sent out to clubs outlining a plan to ‘raise standards across the board and halt the sea of red wins in inter-island representative and club football’.

Guernsey has won just one of 12 senior and age group Murattis played since the pandemic.

Initial focus is on senior football in the 2023-24 season and included among several proposals is a radical change to the FNB Priaulx League that would see the eight teams play each home and away, instead of three times, before the league splits to see the top four play for the title and the bottom four to compete for a new trophy, giving each side 20 league fixtures, rather than the current 21.

The Jackson League would become primarily an under-23 development competition with the intention of providing a more competitive second level of football for first-team fringe players and all under-18s.

Youth football under the age of 16 requires more analysis and it is expected an agreed plan will be put forward for the 2024-25 campaign, but a standout line in the discussion paper reads ‘there is a desperate need to create time and space for any GFA Academy sessions and, most importantly, the various age-group representative squads’.

New GFLM chairman Andy Robert emphasised that while ‘the easiest thing is to do nothing’, his board want to drive improvements.

‘[The discussion paper] is to get people thinking about how things could change. It is probably the first step with some wider considerations to come later on,’ he said.

‘Some people might want us to go further, some not so far, but the thought process is that something needs to freshen up and create an environment where people want to play football and will be challenged.

‘It is a starting point. All the new directors are key to make a contribution to making our whole football environment more competitive, more enjoyable and rewarding to play in, and we want our winners to be competitive at inter-insular level, not just our clubs, but our representative sides.’

The GFLM will have a meeting with the clubs next week to get feedback before proposals are firmed up ready for an EGM.

There will also be an open forum this summer where the GFLM, GFA and GFC will have their input.

‘What I have said to the clubs is the intention of the new board is to work on a body-to-body basis,’ Robert said.

‘We want to try and keep personalities out of it as much as possible. Personally, I don’t think that has been the case too often in the past, but if our bodies are working together and are on the same page, it will help us move forward.’